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(CNN) -- Hurricane Emily regained Category 3 status Friday evening, packing 115 mile per hour winds as it hurtled across the Caribbean toward Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, which are under a hurricane warning.

The latest five-day projection shows the storm making a brief landfall on the tip of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula late Sunday or early Monday, then returning over water in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The storm could pose a threat to the Texas Gulf Coast or the Mexican mainland by Tuesday or Wednesday, the NHC said.

However, projections that far ahead can be unreliable because of the erratic nature of hurricane movement.

At 8 p.m. ET Emily was about 305 miles (490 km) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.

It was moving west-northwest over open water at about 18 mph (30 kph). Forecasters predict the storm will pass just south of Jamaica by noon Saturday and toward the Cayman Islands later in the evening.

Additional strengthening is possible over the next 24 hours, forecasters said.

The storm could produce 5 to 10 inches of rain in Jamaica, with up to 20 inches in mountainous areas. In the Cayman Islands, up to a foot of rain was being forecast.

Forecasters said 3 to 6 inches of rain could also fall on Haiti and the Dominican Republic, portions of which remain under a tropical storm warning.

Emily became the second major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic season Thursday evening, briefly reaching Category 4 status Friday with winds topping 135 mph (217 kilometers).

The storm is already blamed for one death in Grenada, which took a near-direct hit from Emily early Thursday.

It follows on the heels of Dennis, which packed 150 mph winds at one point. The storm caused extensive damage earlier this month in Cuba and the northern U.S. Gulf Coast, killing more than 36 people.